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December 29, 2014

(Cross-Up
is on hiatus, sort of, but not really!
I’m going to try and take it easy over the next few weeks, because it’s
the winter holiday season and I half-expect nobody to be around on the
internet. Things will get back in gear
sometime in January, but until then? If
you ARE here, then enjoy a handful of high-quality filler posts. It’ll be fun, presumably!)

Before I get started, let’s play a game.

I want you to think of a villain -- your favorite
villain, from any story, from any medium, from any time. Take as much time as you need before going
on. Then, once you have that villain in
mind, think for a minute about why that villain means so much to you. (In the event that the villain is more of a
concept/conflict than someone the hero can punch in the face, substitute that
instead.) Don’t worry about forcing
yourself to articulate it, or even mentioning it here in a comment. Just keep your answers fresh on your mind,
okay?

Good.
Great. Remember those answers,
because I’m going to come back to them later.
But for now? Open your eyes for
the next Faiz.

December 25, 2014

(Cross-Up
is on hiatus, sort of, but not really!
I’m going to try and take it easy over the next few weeks, because it’s
the winter holiday season and I half-expect nobody to be around on the
internet. Things will get back in gear
sometime in January, but until then? If
you ARE here, then enjoy a handful of high-quality filler posts. It’ll be fun, presumably!)

Oh man, please tell me I’m the first person on the
internet to make this
joke. It would make me so very, very
happy.

Well, if nothing else, I’m the first person to
ever make the joke on this blog. THAT
MEANS I’VE WON!

All right, I’m about to unload a fruit basket’s worth of
SPOILERS on you guys, so if you want a no-spoiler version of what I think about
this show (and by extension, a trim primer on Gaim), then you’d better go read
this post instead…or first. Or you
can read this one if you have no interest in ever watching it.

That would kind of make this post a moot point -- if not for
the stuff I’m about to discuss. Are you
ready? Here we
gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

December 22, 2014

(Cross-Up ison hiatus, sort of, but not really! I’m
going to try and take it easy over the next few weeks, because it’s the winter
holiday season and I half-expect nobody to be around on the internet. Things will get back in gear sometime in
January, but until then? If you ARE
here, then enjoy a handful of high-quality filler posts. It’ll be fun, presumably!)

I don’t do this very often -- or at all -- but I’m
going to have to put a little strain on the rules.

What I post here tends to NOT be a straight-up
review -- of TV shows, games, movies, or anything that pops up. I’m more concerned with determining why something is good or bad instead of
just outright saying “this is good” or “this is bad”. There’s some overlap, sure, but as I’ve said
in the past, this isn’t the place to go if you’re looking for a score on the
latest game, or any sort of ranking system.

That in mind, I have to make an exception just
this once for Kamen Rider Gaim. Two reasons for that: first, I’d vastly
prefer talking about it if I can point someone toward watching it -- but seeing
as how that’d demand a fifty-ish episode marathon run, I think it’d be best if
I at least put the suggestion in a reader’s head. More importantly, Gaim is the sort of show that’s hard to talk about without tripping
all over spoilers -- SO, I’m going to use THIS post as a sort of all-purpose
primer. It’ll superficially tell you
what’s good and what isn’t (even if that means hinting towards spoilers); in
the posts to follow, we’ll go into full-on discussion mode so I can talk about
the good and the bad. Watching Gaim in its entirety won’t be required,
though, so you can rest easy. Just read
what I’ve got so you can walk away with a fresh perspective.

December 15, 2014

“Sometimes I wonder if I’m a hypocrite. And then I remember that I am, so I go about
my business. But then I remember that I
brought up that point for the sake of a blog post, so I guess I’d better go
into detail.”

Okay. So in
the last post, I mentioned that I tend to have a bad reaction whenever the Game
Grumps go back to the NES/SNES well -- playing 2D platformers and such on an
extremely regular basis. It’s true that
they can get a lotout of them comedy-wise
that I appreciate, but then I remember how much fun it was for me (and the
Grumps, I bet) for Dan to experience Shadow
of the Colossus for the first time.
I suppose there’s always Steam Train -- or failing that, the Best
Friends Zaibatsu -- to offer up something fresh, but it still leaves me wary.

Except
when they play something like Donkey Kong
Country Returns: Tropical Freeze. I
wanted to stand up and cheer when they started a playthrough on that…which is
ass-backwards, considering that it’s pretty much just a 2D platformer that just
happens to look amazing. So that pretty
much means I’m a hypocrite, right? Like,
I just want the Grumps to play the games I
like, and what I want to
see? That’s the impression I’m getting,
unfair as it may be to some of the funniest guys online.

In my defense?
There’s a reason why I want
them, and everyone, to play Tropical
Freeze.

December 11, 2014

Let me tell you a little
secret: I don’t always know the difference between a good idea and a bad one.

This blog may make me
look like a smart guy who has all the answers [citation needed], but that’s
hardly true of me. Just think about it:
would a guy who has all the answers feel the need to completely invalidate
years of work on a hunch bred from second-guesses and crippling
insecurities? Common knowledge suggests
not. So let it be known that I’m no ace. I stumble just like everyone else -- maybe
more than average. And I’m hoping that
even if I become some writing tour de force, I won’t become so blinded by power
that I’ll reject all criticism.
(Consider that a license to punch me in the stomach for anyone who one
day sees me as no better than Michael Bay.)

I want to do my best --
and more -- for the sake of others. I
want my stories to entertain people, and make them happy. And I want to be good enough to make that
happen.

December 8, 2014

Sometimes I wonder if I’m a hypocrite. And then I remember that I am, so I go about
my business. But then I remember that I
brought up that point for the sake of a blog post, so I guess I’d better go
into detail.

Like a lot of people, I’m a fan of the Game
Grumps. Whether it’s the original Jon
era or the current one with Arin and Dan, it’s still a series I tune into
routinely. Sure, not every second of
every video is a laugh riot, and their regular stumbling blocks are problematic (I’m surprised I lived
through their Wind Waker playthrough,
given how long it took them to leave the first damn island), but on
average? Team Grump is pretty good.

Still, I have to make a confession. Whenever the two of them decide to play
through an old-school NES/SNES game -- platformers, typically -- my heart ends
up sinking. I mean, Team Grump has
access to a monstrous library of games, both from fan contributions and a
museum-sized collection. Out of all the
choices available, why opt for something like Super Adventure Island? And
why do that as a months-later follow-up to a game like Shovel Knight, the premiere love letter to old-school games?

Crap, did I just give away my opinion on Shovel
Knight? Great. Now why would anyone want to read this
post? I might as well just post pictures
of cats or something.

December 1, 2014

I get it, of course. There’s a Smash
game out for the Wii U, and there’s a Smash
game out for the 3DS. How do you set
them apart? Say as much in the
title! But man, isn’t that name such a
downgrade? We had Melee, and then we had Brawl,
and now we get…for Wii U? Why not Showdown? Or Riot? Or -- well, I guess those are all the good
ones. But the point stands.

That’s pretty much all I’ve got in terms of
complaints. I could nitpick, I guess --
and I probably will -- but other than that?
Look, I seriously don’t think I need to tell anyone reading this that
this is a good game. If you have it, you
know that already. If you don’t have it,
then you’ve probably heard as much by this point -- and I’d argue that you should buy it, especially if you have a
Wii U. Generally speaking, just going over some of the ins and outs of the game
would make this post completely pointless.

So let’s do something different. Let’s start with a question: why this game?